County Executive’s Corner: Prison is Where Judith Clark Belongs – Let’s Work Together to Keep Her There

Sometime this week the unthinkable could happen: Brinks killer Judith Clark could go before the state Parole Board and win release from prison.

This possibility is so hard to comprehend because our justice system decided more than 30 years ago that Judith Clark needed to spend 75 years to life behind bars for her role in the 1981 robbery at the Nanuet mall that left a Brinks guard and two Nyack police officers dead.

Judith Clark was part of a violent gang of domestic terrorists that invaded our quiet county that bloody day.

Judith Clark willingly participated in the cold-blooded murder of three members of law enforcement in Rockland County.

Rockland County was never the same. And we will never forget the three law enforcement officers who lost their life on October 20, 1981.

Brinks guard Peter Paige was shot dead at the Nanuet Mall as this gang of terrorists tried to rob a bank.

Nyack Sgt. Edward O’Grady and Officer Waverly “Chipper” Brown were fatally shot dead following the robbery at a roadblock on the state Thruway.

Judith Clark was captured by the Nyack police that day.

Judith Clark drove one of the cars. She wasn’t “just a getaway driver.” She wasn’t just a kid – she was a 31-year-old mother. And she was deeply involved in the planning of this heinous act. She was reaching for a gun when she was taken into custody.

She stood trial under our system of justice – even though she denounced and rejected our justice system

A jury of her peers convicted her. A judge found that she deserved no consideration of rehabilitation and sentenced her to 75 years to life in prison.

The system worked: Prison is where she belongs.

It was a vicious slap in the face to the Brinks families, some of whom still live in Rockland, and law enforcement everywhere that the governor commuted the sentence Judith Clark earned and made her eligible for parole.

Some of her supporters say that she is a different person – that her decades in prison have changed her and made her see the evil of her ways.

Great. That’s nice. But that is not the point.

And her behavior in prison over the past three decades plus doesn’t excuse her unspeakable crimes.

Peter Paige, Edward O’Grady and Waverly “Chipper” Brown got death sentences that day because of the actions of Judith Clark and her gang.

She deserves no less than to spend the rest of her days in prison, as a jury found and a judge ordered.

That was the message hundreds of people from Rockland County sent on a freezing day this past January when they rallied on the steps of the Old Rockland Courthouse. I worked with the Rockland County PBA to organize that rally and I urged the people of Rockland to contact the state to let their views be known.

The state Parole Board has not said when it will consider Clark’s case. It is expected to be next week.

Judith Clark does not deserve to see the light of day. The only place for Judith Clark in a civilized society is behind bars.”

If you feel the same way, tell the state Board of Parole before it’s too late.